Chichén Itzá, Mexico

In 2007, the Oakland, California-based Chabot Space and Science Center, in conjunction with InSight Digital and ArtsLab, embarked upon a mission to produce high definition laser and photographic data from the ruins of Chichén Itzá’s civic core for its ambitious Maya Skies Project. CyArk was called upon to spearhead the mission for its expertise in the digital documentation and heritage fields. In October of the same year CyArk assembled a documentation team to be sent to the Yucatán, in conjunction with  Michigan partners Metco Services. Over the course of three weeks, a highly detailed data set was produced which included terrestrial LiDAR, close-range laser scanning, panoramic photography, HDR photography, and traditional survey. Dozens of scans were produced from a Leica Geosystems Scan Station laser scanner, including 37 scans of the Caracol structure alone, which was the most complex structure and the main focus of the project. Six other important structures in the civic core were also thoroughly scanned, including El Castillo. A followup expedition was conducted by Epic Scan to record the Balankanche Cave. The entire project was made possible by a grant from the National Science Foundation.

The Mayan's sophisticated understanding of mathematics and astronomy is imprinted onto their monumental structures. One such building, Temple of Kukulcan, known popularly as El Castillo is located towards the south of the Great Plaza. It is a large step pyramid made of cut limestone blocks atop a rubble-fill core that reaches 30 meters in height with a base extending over 55 meters across.  At the spring and fall equinoxes, the setting sun casts undulating shadows on the stairway, forming bodies for the serpent heads carved at the base of the north balustrades, pointing towards the sacred cenote. A large square temple with four doorways sits atop the highest terrace of where important ceremonies would have taken place. The northern entrance (facing the Sacred Cenote) is the largest and most ornate of the upper temple’s four entrances. Two great serpent balustrades flank this portal and support the stone lintel above. Inside the temple are representations of Chaak, the Mayan rain deity, on the facades.